


Genius

by ifzi0531



Category: One Direction (Band)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-20
Updated: 2013-02-20
Packaged: 2017-11-29 22:40:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/692340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ifzi0531/pseuds/ifzi0531
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <strong>
    <br/>
    </strong></p><div class="center"><strong><em>
        <p>Most smart people aren't aware of the fact they are smart.</p>
      </em></strong></div><strong>
    <br/>
  </strong>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>“Your IQ rating is 146!”</p>
</div>
            </blockquote>





	Genius

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this just for Niall's birthday tribute on Sept and just for fun. I apologize in advance for lack of plot or whatsoever.

“Li..” Louis calls the boy besides him. They are sitting on the couch, playing FIFA together but Louis can’t seem to focus on the game. 

“Hmm..” Liam answers shortly. Obviously, Liam seems to focus on the game better than Louis. 

“Li….” Louis calls, or more accurately whining when Liam seems to ignore him. 

Liam senses that and as engrossed as he is with their video game, Liam turns his head to look at Louis curiously. “What, Lou?” 

Louis drops his controller and turns to face Liam properly. “Okay. I have this thing in my mind that I need to talk to you about.” 

“Oh. Okay, about what? Girl trouble?” Liam asks. 

“No! I have _enough_ sisters to talk about that, Li.” Louis says as he rolls his eyes. 

Liam chuckles. “Oh.Yeah. That’s true. So what seems to be the problem now?” Liam drops his controller and turns to face Louis too. 

“It’s about Niall.” Louis says simply. 

Liam raises his eyebrows. “What about him?” 

“Ithinkhehaschanged.” Louis says quickly. 

Liam blinks his eyes. Once. Twice. He doesn’t understand a single word. Sensing that, Louis opens his mouth to speak again. 

“I think he has changed.” Louis says, gauging Liam’s reaction as he stares at the brunette in front of him. 

“What do you mean?” 

“I mean..he..I mean..” Louis hesitants, “..he has grown up..” Louis finishes lamely. 

Liam’s eyes widened before he cracks into a fit of laughter but quickly sober up as Louis stares at him unimpressed. 

“Lou..everyone is growing up..not just Niall.” Liam says as he is still not understand what Louis is trying to say. So, Niall had grown up. So, what? 

“No, Li. What I mean is. He seems to be smarter than his age now. Don’t you think so?” Louis asks. 

Liam nods. “Yes. Sometimes. But why does it bother you?” 

“It’s not a bother. I’m just…don’t understand how to fit him in our group now.” 

“Huh?” Liam makes a noise. A very confusing noise because he is indeed confuse. 

Louis rolls his eyes and slaps Liam on the shoulder before standing up, leaving Liam with his most confusing conversation ever. 

 

** 

 

Liam’s mind is reeling about his conversation and he tries to think what does Louis means by Niall being too smart for his own age. It started during their X-Factor, now that Liam finally thinks about it. Niall always being the one who knew how to impersonate other people and always caught up things faster than the others. 

And then Liam notices that during interviews, Niall seems to always hanging back, letting the others does the talking but when they were quizzed about something, Niall always seem to know the answer. The Irish lad also know how to adapt with the local accent everywhere they go, and he can speak Spanish fluently for God’s sake. And how in the hell people can speak fluent Spanish when they only learnt it at school for few hours and Niall didn’t even finished his school. Liam’s thought is broke by the sounds of loud laughter coming from the front lounge of the bus. He knows the laughter so well and couldn’t help but cracks a smile. He doesn’t know how to describe what Niall _is_ at the moment, but he knows that he loves Niall and his bandmates to the bit and nothing else matters. 

 

** 

 

Except that it matters to Louis. 

Louis had been observing the Irish lad for a while and he couldn’t put his fingers on how to describe Niall. He means the _new_ Niall. Not the _fetus_ Niall. 

The _new_ Niall seems to be more confident, _more_ outspoken and more…that’s one word that Louis couldn’t come out with. He doesn’t know how to describe the _new_ Niall. Niall seems to know everyone and everything. 

Louis knows that when they were asked about their ambition if they didn’t end up being in a band, everyone had their own answer but Niall’s answer is what intrigued him the most. Niall wants to further study in Sound Engineering. Hell, even the word _Engineering_ freaks Louis out. And Louis always thinks that Niall is not serious about it until they are rehearsing at one of their concerts and Louis sees everything. 

They starts with their first song when Niall‘s voice suddenly pipes in. “I think the sound is not very clear.” 

Louis raises his eyebrow at Niall’s comment. By now, they are all sitting on the stage side, watching as Niall talking to one of the audio technicians. 

“What do you mean?” The audio technician asks and Niall starts to move closer to the mixing board (Louis only knew that name few minutes ago, but who cares?). Louis watches the conversation with peak of interest. 

“I think you need to adjust the volume levels here..” Niall says as his hand reaches one of the knobs at the mixing board, “..and here..” Niall continues. 

Louis watches as the audio technician looks unconvincingly at Niall and Louis knows the look so well. He looks at Niall like _you’re-just-a-kid-who-sings-and-knows-nothing_ and when Louis is about to snap because nobody can treat Niall like that, he is cutting off by the sound of another audio technician’s voice, agreeing with Niall. And then Niall keeps talking and Louis can only picks up words such as _control, microphones, instrument_ because all other words sounds so foreign to him. When Louis turns around to see Liam, Harry and Zayn, he chuckles. Because all three of them are looking at Niall in such amazement with their mouths wide open and Louis can proudly say that at least he doesn’t look like that. _At least._

Louis is snapped out from his thought when suddenly he heard Zayn’s voice besides him. “How in the hell does he knows all that?” Louis is sure that Zayn is fan-girling over Niall’s knowledge by hearing to his tone. 

“I think..” Harry starts to speak as they all turn to look at him, waiting for him to continue because it’s Harry. Harry talks in a grandma’s speed, _period._

“..we need to make him to take the IQ test..” Harry finishes.

“Why?” Liam asks, curious. 

“Just so we can see how smart he is?” Louis pipes in. 

Liam, Zayn and Harry looks at Louis and Louis smiles. How in the hell he had not think about it before?

 

** 

 

“Your IQ rating is 146!” Liam says excitedly. 

Niall stares blankly at four pair of eyes in front of him. “So what does that means?” 

“That means..” Harry tries to say slowly, like he always does without even trying. 

“That means you’re genius!” Louis says excitedly as now that he finally can find a word to describe the _new_ Niall. 

“Oh.” Niall seems to take a lot of time to process the new information about him before realization sinks in. _”Oh.”_

Zayn wraps his arms around Niall proudly and Liam smiles at Niall like the proud _daddy_. No pun intended. 

“But..” Louis suddenly says, turning to a serious face. Niall raises his eyebrows, waiting for Louis to speak. 

“But what?” Yeah, Niall is mentally thanking Zayn for speaking on behalf on him. 

“But it means that Niall can’t hang out with us again, right? We’re the idiots, _always_ , and he is genius. How does that would mix?” Louis says. He sounds innocent but Niall feels the sting anyway. 

“Louis!” All three other lads call out for Louis and frowns at his words. 

“What?! I’m just saying the truth!” Louis defends himself. 

Niall stares at four other people in front of him and blinks his eyes. “Is it because I’m a freak now?” Niall asks hesitantly and all of them turn their head to look at Niall. Liam frowns and glares pointedly at Louis as he sees the brimmed tears in Niall’s eyes.

“You’re not a freak, you idiot!” Zayn says sternly. 

“I’m not an idiot. You guys said I’m genius…” Niall trailed off, his eyes full of confusion. 

All of them fall into silence before Harry starts cracking up followed by Liam, Zayn and Louis who is already rolling on the floor, clutching his stomach. Niall can be so contradict with himself sometimes; it is so adorable to see. It’s true what the others always say, most smart people aren't aware of the fact they are smart.

Niall pouts and crosses his arms as he doesn’t understand what is going on with his friends. 

Liam is the first one to sober up and walking closer to Niall, ruffling the younger’s hair. “What Zayn meant was, that you are _our_ idiot. And yes, you are genius, Nialler.” 

Harry, Louis and Zayn throw themselves around Liam and Niall, forming a group hug. “It’s nice to finally have a _genius_ one in our group!” Zayn says as the other nods and they starts to play fighting until they got tired and sprawls on the floor. They lapse into a comfortable silence before Niall starts to speak. 

“Guys..I’m hungry..” Niall whines. 

Liam glances at Louis and both of them nod. Yes, this is Niall that they loves, and it doesn’t matter if he is the _old-idiot_ Niall or the _new-genius_ Niall. They love him anyway. 

And it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what are the next words that Niall would say. “Let’s go to Nando’s!”


End file.
